What the Heck Was Up With Traffic Today?

(SPOT.ph) Insane traffic is pretty much the norm now, especially on EDSA. North kids woke up this morning expecting the usual southbound trudge to work, but were all (unpleasantly) surprised by the carmaggedon happening out on the Metro's major thoroughfare. Turns out, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority enforcers were restricting city buses to their designated yellow lanes, according to a report by GMA News Online. 

There's no word yet on why this policy was suddenly enforced, although the yellow lanes have been on EDSA since 2012. The sudden implementation though meant that buses swerving to get into their designated lanes caused quite a build-up for all vehicles on EDSA—an understatement, we know—from SM North area all the way to Cubao. 

While the outer lanes were cramped full of buses and private cars trying to get to the service roads, inner lanes were free of traffic. Buses with usual routes that pass through flyovers and underpasses were confined to the yellow lanes. 

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is set to begin a dry run of the EDSA bus ban tomorrow, August 7, despite a Quezon City regional court ruling against it. The agency has stated that the cooperation of bus operators will be on a "voluntary" basis. 

Traffic in the city has been slowing down even more. According to data from MMDA, the average travel time in the city slowed to 147.6 seconds per one kilometer in 2018, which is 8.4 seconds slower from 2017's average of 139.2 seconds per kilometer.